Choose Your Own Food Adventure

Why sit back and watch the chefs have all the fun? Now, anyone can cook alongside
the masters and travel to places no amateur gastronome has gone before

By
Katy McLaughlin

Updated Feb. 1, 2013 6:12 pm ET

THERE WAS A TIME, not long ago, when indulging the inner epicure was a mere matter of buying the latest Japanese knife or sitting through a three-hour tasting menu. But even as Americans' passion for food has steadily climbed since Julia Child first gave a chicken a full-body butter massage, there's been a recent tectonic shift in how we relate to food and the culture that surrounds it. It's no longer enough to outfit the kitchen with expensive toys or watch celebrity chefs gobble fermented shark on TV.